Some historical revisionism

There are certain memes that become embedded in our national conversation, despite the fact that they are in no way fact based. Being of an age when I get to be a curmudgeon, I feel I have the right to protest. Consider this:

Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee known for his independent streak over more than three decades representing Arizona in the Senate, has brain cancer, his office disclosed Wednesday night in a statement from the Mayo Clinic.

Let’s see now. Three decades would bring us back to 1987. But we didn’t find out about John McCain’s “independent streak” until he ran for president in 2000 and announced to the world that he was a “maverick”. The press fell in love with him because he sometimes said some stuff that sounded mavericky (i.e., reasonable), for a Republican. He’s been on television almost every Sunday since then. But while he sometimes says things that run against the Republican grain, a funny thing tends to happen when it comes time to vote. He runs with the herd. It would be interesting to ask any of the reporters that are so enamored of the man to name one actually important issue in which he has strayed. (I’m sticking with the maverick metaphor as long as I can) When the pressure’s on, Mitch McCowboy has no trouble roping him in. Consider health care, in which he hasn’t strayed from the corral at all, except to assert that the Republican plan is dead, but not by his hand.

I realize he’s ill, and he may, by leaving the corral at this point, and in no way due to any independent streak, be doing the greatest public service of his political career . But remember that’s because he’s one less vote they can count on to screw the people of America.

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